PELLA, Iowa – The Wartburg College Knights (6-11 overall, 3-1 A-R-C) opened up their series with the Central College Dutch (11-4, 1-3) with a 7-3 victory on Saturday afternoon.
 
Sophomore pitcher Dylan Gotto (Peosta) matched career-highs with eight innings pitched and nine strikeouts in the victorious effort. Junior Joey Baumann (Woodbury, Minn.) notched a career-high with three hits out of four at bats to go with two RBIs. Freshman Jarod Harris (Manchester) recorded a career-high two RBIs on two of five batting, including recording his first career home run. As a team, the Knights recorded 11 hits.
 
Wartburg struck first with a one-run first inning fueled by sophomore outfielder JoJo McNair (Joliet, Ill.), who reached base on a triple and scored on a wild pitch. Central answered with a one-run inning of their own in the second. The 1-1 tie lasted until the fifth inning before the Orange and Black broke the tie after junior infielder Tyler Hovick (Roland) homered for the second time this season to take the 2-1 lead.
 
The Knights extended their lead to four after scoring three runs at the top of the seventh behind two RBI singles by Baumann and Harris, in addition to McNair connecting on his second triple of the day to score Baumann and push the score to 5-1. Wartburg added their sixth run of the day at the top of the eighth after Baumann doubled to right center, scoring Hovick.
 
The Orange and Black scored their final run of the day at the top of the ninth when Harris homered to extend the lead to 7-1. Freshman pitcher Aaron Eybers (Sioux City) subbed in for Gotto at the top of the ninth and limited the Dutch to two runs in the inning before closing out the game 7-3.
 
The Orange and Black return to the diamond tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. to face the Dutch in doubleheader action.